At the end of may, the color of wheat started to change, and their harvesting began. Then, at the end of June, that day finally arrived
“I hereby decree the beginning of the invasion of the south. Leader of Yellow Dragon Knight Order, Barbarodem Darsen, is appointed Great General. Leader of Red Dragon Knight Order, Mireille Saint Sandora, is appointed Vice General. Both of you will lead your respective Knight Orders and join the infantry unit to the southern regions and take over the beastmen’s town.” The king declared.
““YES!””
The giant Barbarodem and the knight princess Mireille received the order of the king in the throne room.
The bells of war tolled.
Still, it seemed unnecessary for two knight orders to take part in a castle siege, but this is a preparation for the allied soldiers rather than for the enemies. Even if it was easy to attack the beastmen’s town, when the fierce battle starts, the order of the army will be disturbed. Due to the fear of death, the soldiers might rebel or desert the army. Therefore, to maintain military order, it was necessary to have a stronger ally watch over them.
“Mireille-dono, Count Sarabona has sent 2,000 soldiers from her territory. They will join us at the southernmost village.” Barbarodem informed.
“Understood.” The princess nodded curtly.
The Yellow Knight Order led by Barbarodem were heavy cavalry troops. As their rear troops, which consisted of engineering troops and transportation corps, will slow them down, they will be using the Lucille River in the south, which flows toward the river north of the beastmen’s town, and arrive ahead of time. On their way there, they will be joined by Count Umbroshna’s infantries from the southern edge territory.
Taking advantage of the mobility of the Red dragon Knight Order lead by Mireille which consisted of light cavalry troops, they will move towards another corner of the southern territory ruled Count Sarabona, and pick up another 2,000 soldiers here.
The soldiers consisted of 4,000 infantrymen from southern area, 1,000 cavalrymen, and a 300 strong supply troop. The southern invasion consisted of 5,300 soldiers in total.
“Red Dragon Knights, move out!” Mireille ordered sternly.
500 vanguards of the Red Dragon Knight Order that lined up in front of the castle saluted in response and obeyed her orders. The Red Dragon Knights received cheers from the people as they departed from the Imperial City of Sandoria.
They were approximately 300 km away from the southwestern land. They didn’t need any transportation troops. It was the best route for the Red Dragon Knight Order which has light equipment. It was a distance which they could cover in 5 days.
Before long, the Red Dragon Knights joined up with the infantrymen from Sarabona. They allowed the local soldiers who knew about the geographical landmarks to lead the way, and went southeast until they reached Lucille river. Because there were a lot of hills in the area, they advanced in a vertical formation.
The plains spread out as they left the south territory. Because they could arrange the soldiers into a horizontal formation now, the differences between the frontline and rear became much smaller. Although they could march faster now, but because they have joined up with an infantry troop, their speed didn’t increase much.
“Alright, let’s take a break here! Feed the horses as well!” Mireille commanded.
They took breaks approximately once every hour. As they crossed the southern area, there were only plains without any villages, so there was plenty of feed for the horses.
But, horses are light eaters. They will not get enough nutrition from grass if only fed a few times a day. That is why they took breaks in intervals to let them feed properly.
[TL: the first time I heard that ancient people talking about nutrition for horse.]
While the horses drank from the river, the knights finished their miscellaneous tasks. Mireille was human too, so something that needs to taken care of needs to be taken care of. But, there was only one woman among the men. Thus, even Mireille, who was a strong-minded woman, felt embarrassed because of “it”.
[TL: remind me of mulan.]
Mireille hid under the cover of some shadows. Even the plains were not totally flat, and there were still small hills to hide behind. Mireille, without showing any hesitation, lowered her pants and squatted down.
[TL: author, really? Did you need to go this much details?]
At this moment, Mireille was thinking that it’s troublesome to be a woman. She didn’t want to become a man or anything like that. It’s just that it took two times more effort to take care of women’s various needs.
Then, she heard the sound of footsteps. Alarmed by the sound, Mireille turned sideways, and saw one knight standing there foolishly.
“Ah, I’m sorry.” He apologised quickly and turned around.
Although he turned around quickly, she could see that the knight had a grin on his face as he returned in the direction he came from.
She could tell just by looking at his face. That knight came to this place on purpose.
Mireille thought about it again. For a woman to become a leader of a knight order... There will be people who don’t like it. Mireille knew about it. But, that remark... Did he just want to look at a woman doing her business? What a vulgar person.
But, Mirielle doesn’t feel any shame at all from being peeped at. Unreasonable acts during march... The person who doesn’t know time and place was not a person, but a beast. Being looked by a beast, humans will not feel anything. It’s only like that. However, she still intended to discipline the beast like the beast he was.
“Oi! You bastard!” She heard a loud voice from other side of cover as she pulled up her pants.
“Aah, what is it? Isn’t it the newcomer who just became a knight? Do you have any complaints against your senior?” The man sneered.
“The fact that I am a newcomer doesn’t have any relationship to this!” The newcomer stated angrily.
Looks like someone saw him peeping. But, it won’t be good if left as it is. The dispute between knights could lead to infighting during the war.
“Stop!” Mireille called out from the shadows.
“But, this guy!” The newcomer tried to object.
“It’s just an accident. I don’t mind at all.” She stated calmly.
At Mireille’s words, that vulgar knight let out a huff with a triumphant face and left. The other knight was still glaring at him.
She has seen that face before. She remembered that he had good sword skills, but there was still a long way to go. Mireille tilted her head to the side as she tried to remember his name.
“Your name is...” She muttered.
“Yes, it is Tsutomu Sano!” He replied energetically.
“Sano, huh. I will remember that name.” She nodded at him.
“Yes, I am honored!” He hollered and knelt down immediately.
Mireille glanced at him briefly while placing her feet onto the stirrups of her own horse. Sano might only want to curry favor. But, at least he had some common sense while doing that. Mireille thought that this was far better than a beast without any reason.
The army marched around 20 km a day. They sent fast horses to the villages in the south to let the villagers make meals for them before the army arrived. It was to eliminate any wasted time, and also allowed the soldiers to take more breaks.
[TL: the villages here is the new villages, while the southern region from before is still considered as Sandra Kingdom area.]
There was no need to destroy the tents. The soldiers would sleep with the sky as the ceiling, and a camp for the knights would have been built before they even arrived at the village.
Then, they finally arrived at the southernmost village. There will be no more villages after this. The town of the beastmen was about 30 km from here.
However, it doesn’t seems like Barbarodem has arrived yet.
“It is already late. Let’s take a break here. Let both the men and horses take a good rest.” Mireille ordered.
Before Barbarodem arrived, it was important for the men and horses to adapt to the climate of this land. It was so hot that they couldn’t get accustomed to it quickly.
The blazing sunlight was sucking away moisture without any mercy. Not only the body, even the earth has lost its water, and grass grew sparsely. Without a river, Mireille thought that this was not place where anyone could live.
After taking care of the horses, there was nothing much to do, so Mireille went to look at the siege weapons they had transported with them. It was a stone throwing catapult, an indispensable item for a siege.
The unknown magic was able to attack from a position 300 meters away while the range of the catapult was 400 meters. With its thick frame, it can also be used as barrier to protect themselves. In addition, with the massive triangular roof attached at top, even with the unknown magic would have difficulty piercing it.
“Hmph, we will force them out of the town with this.” Mireille pictured the near future and laughed alone.
Five days after the Red Dragon Knights arrived at the southernmost village, the Yellow Dragon Knights finally arrived. The reason for their delay was because the infantry troops did not gather on time.
After another day’s rest, the entire army marched. The Yellow Dragon Knights acted as vanguards, the infantry lined up behind them, and the Red Dragon Knights and the supply troops were positioned in the rear.
While Mireille sat on top of her horse, she told herself that the war will start from now on.
It’s Mireille’s first war. It’s not like she doesn’t have enthusiasm. Her whole body was hot with excitement, as if she was being boiled in a pot. It was a heat that surpassed the hot temperature of the environment, so she suddenly stopped sweating. Her body temperature was normal, but the insides of her body was incredibly hot.
[TL: I think it is more or less about psycology thing.]
Before the sun set, they found the watch tower located about 4 km north of the beastmen’s town. There were no shadows of any beastmen there. This meant that the beastmen town was aware of the Kingdom of Sandra’s intentions.
Under Barbarodem’s instructions, the soldiers built a camp under the watchtower. The camp will become their house while they remained in this land. While building the camp, there was no reaction from the beastmen town.
In the evening, a war council was held. The sound of work could still be heard from outside. The people gathered at the commander camp were: Barbarodem and the vice leader of the Yellow Dragon Knights, Mireille and the vice leader, Thomas, of the Red Dragon Knights, and another four people who were the leaders of the infantry troops from the southern territories. These eight people had gathered today to plan for the course of the war.
“First――” Barbarodem spoke up to start the war council.
However, at that moment, it became noisy outside.
“What happened?!” Mireille demanded.
“Mireille-sama! I have something to report!” Outside of the curtain, someone cried out her name.
Mireille thought that it was a familiar voice. There was no doubt that it was someone from the Red Dragon Knights. Now then, who was it?
Mireille stood up, ignoring the complaints about rudeness pouring out from the other leaders, and went outside the curtain. Vice leader Thomas was right behind Mireille.
“If I am not wrong, you are Sano, right?” She asked.
Behind the curtain was Sano. It was the newcomer she remembered during the march.
“There is something I’d like to tell you!” Sano knelt and said.
“This is too sudden! Where do you think this place is?! Rather, what about the camp construction, you bastard?!” Thomas was angered and raged at him.
A low ranked knight appeared without permission at the military council where only senior knight could enter. Sano was bringing disgrace to their group.
“Well, it’s fine, vice leader.” Mireille stated.
Was Sano’s true nature an honest or a cunning one? She was a little bit interested. Anyway, since he came all the way here to talk to the point of disturbing war council, it might actually be something important.
“Say it.” She ordered.
“Just one thing. Would you please recommend me to ask them to surrender?” He begged.
What is this? It’s neither poison nor medicine (neither harmful nor helpful)... Mireille was disappointed.
“I don’t really mind who goes there. The scale of this place didn’t change much from the first time we attacked it. Thus, like before, they will likely show resistance.” She sighed.
Then, Sano made an elated face. It seemed like he had some hidden card. It was such face.
“To tell you the truth, I was from the same village as the master of that town. But, it can’t be said we were acquaintances.” He stated.
This time, Mireille was impressed.
“That means you know something about this unknown magic?” That deep voice came from behind Mireille.
Mireille took a glimpse at her back and saw Barbarodem standing behind her, unnoticed.
“I don’t know about the details, but it’s some kind of device...” Sano explained.
Mireille’s eyebrows rose upon hearing his words. After all, she was concerned about the unknown magic. But, Sano said that he knew of the device. If that’s truly the case, then this was priceless information.
“You may enter.” Barbarodem gave his permission.
Barbarodem and his vice leader sat in the middle, while various generals sat equally on his right and left side. Sano knelt down alone while receiving their strong stares.
“Say it.” Barbarodem stated while looking at Sano with sharp eyes, eyes that won’t forgive any lies.
“The technique firing that throwing stone isn’t magic. It is due to weapons called guns.” After saying that, Sano started drawing a picture in the ground with his finger.
All of the generals were looking at it. As Mireille looked at the drawn picture, she thought that it was like a hammer. But, she was wrong. The part where Mireille though was a hammer’s handle was actually a cylinder according to Sano.
“After stuffing a lump of iron inside the long cylinder, the explosion caused by gunpowder will launch it out.” Sano further elaborated.
“Explosion?” Mireille tilted her head when she heard the word ‘explosion’.
There was no gunpowder in this world. Therefore, they would not understand the scientific phenomenon of an explosion. However, a sudden burst of magic power from inside is similar to an explosion, so the word itself existed.
“At that point, the bullet will be blown out by the fierce winds from the explosion. It is enough if you think of like that.” He simplified the explanation.
While listening to Sano’s explanation, Mireille groaned softly. She doesn’t really understand what he was saying. It was just that Mireille is trying to wrap her mind around the possibility of an iron firing another piece of iron.
“It has the same principle as a blowpipe. You concentrate power on one side of the pipe, and the mass of iron will shoot out because the power, right?
It certainly make sense. Do you know the range that it can cover?” Barbarodem remarked.
But, Sano shook his head as he did not know the distance it could cover.
“Can this weapon be prepared as much as one likes?” Barbarodem pressed on.
“No, I think the number is limited because it is very difficult to make. No one is able to make one except if he is a specialized engineer. Moreover, there is another thing. Our country is not on this continent. It is impossible to bring it from that place since it is on the other side of the sea.” Sano stated.
“What? Did you say you crossed the ocean?” Barbarodem demanded.
“Yes. While crossing the sea, we were shipwrecked, and drifted to this continent.” Sano answered.
“Why were you silent about this till now?” The general questioned.
“I have never had a chance to talk about it, and another reason is that my hometown is in the west.” The Japanese male replied.
“...West, huh.” Barbarodem muttered.
Sano escaped from Barbarodem’s interrogation by saying that he came from the west sea. Everyone was convinced about why Sano didn’t talk about it now.
On the church’s map, there was nothing in the west. It was supposed to be the end of the world. What would happen if someone said something about it? It was a story where someone could be put into an inquisition because of it.
“I don’t care about your hometown. Why did you recommend yourself as the one to advice them to surrender? Do you think that that person will surrender because you asked them to?” Mireille frowned.
“I think it is impossible. But, I will definitely be able to get something out of them at least.” Sano stared at them confidently.
Barbarodem remained silent for a short while after hearing Sano’s reply before opening his mouth.
“Alright. Do it.” He coolly gave the order.