Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi
chapter-155

–Aegir POV–

It has been one week after the Olga Federation’s fleet demolished the Magrado Navy and nothing stands in our way of crossing the river, so the entire army, excluding the injured soldiers who withdrew, disembarked in Port Randel and the surrounding area. Among the soldiers are of course Leopolt, Myla and the injured Celia and Irijina.

「Hardlett-dono, the wound is fine now!」

Irijina lowers her pants to show me the scar on her thigh. Scars are like mysterious things to her, but it’ll disappear once I smear some nice ointment on it.

「Mine has healed too!」

Celia exposes her shoulder to me. Her wound was much smaller than Irijina’s so it’s pretty much unrecognizable now.

「Yeah, I get it……but is that also some form of condolences?」

「「Eh?」」

The two of them look around, instantly chasing away the eyes of the soldiers, but their crotches are visibly bulging out. The soldiers haven’t slept with any women since they stepped onto the battlefield so having some pretty ladies suddenly reveal their thigh and shoulder in front of them inevitably caused that reaction.

「Don’t looook!」

「Hm? Hm?」

Celia gets embarrassed while Irijina is clueless, but all in all it was a successful landing operation.

「So……how is Gido doing ?」

「Ah……」「Nu……」

Celia and Irijina seem to be at a loss for words. Does that mean he didn’t make it?

「Gido is severely wounded and his internal organs have been heavily damaged. He somehow managed to avoid dying on the spot but his wound got infected and he is writhing in pain and misery. The doctor advised he probably wouldn’t last long and that it might be more compassionate to let him die instantly.」

Luna comments with a tone devoid of any emotion. It must be tough for her to see the final moments of a boy who was so in love with her.

「Leave him to fight against death. I have a little bit of a wish after all.」

「……he is really suffering.」

「Even so. It might be hell for him right now, but……if he survives, he can taste paradise.」

Luna doesn’t say anything more.

She must be thinking ‘I don’t want to watch Gido suffer, but I want him to survive if possible’.

「Well we won’t save him by babbling about it here. If we lose here and all of us get massacred, we would be putting the cart before the horse. Let’s strive to win against the enemy first.」

「Then, if you would allow me.」

Leopolt, who waited for the conversation about Gido to be over, steps forward without hesitation and spreads open a map. Luna and Celia glare at him but he doesn’t pay them any attention.

It just wouldn’t be right if Leopolt isn’t like that.

「Allowing our entire army to land means the enemy’s numerical advantage has crumbled. In this situation, their encirclement is nothing more than a dispersion of their forces. The enemy is already gradually retreating from Port Randel. After they gather their troops in the plains, they’ll most likely proceed to a deciding battle.」

That has also been confirmed by the lookout.

But it is to be expected they are retreating orderly, since trying to imitate a surprise attack with insufficient preparation would put them at risk instead.

「What’s the probability of them holing up in a castle?」

Their capital Odoros is no too far away. They possess a sturdy set of city walls and there is a possibility that they might run back there.

「None. If they do something like holing up in their castle, the army confronting Lord Radhalde’s landing operation will be wiped out by a pincer attack and they’ll just be surrounded from three directions. Moreover, their main force consists of heavy infantry, which cannot be said is suited towards defending a siege.」

「Fumu, in that case where would they be positioning themselves?」

「They will likely be in the Nord Plains, the midpoint between their capital and Port Randel. To deal with our army, which has the advantage in numbers, they will need some reinforcements and must retreat to a certain extent. And like before, they’ll need a place where they can use the terrain to try and throw our formation in disarray……there is no other place but here.」

「Then we can’t give the enemy any time. We should make preparations immediately. Let’s contact Erich’s First and Second division corps as well.」

「Right, but we can’t expect to rendezvous with them for the decisive battle.」

「I know.」

The Federation’s fleet also seems to have appeared where Erich’s First division corps is and took out the enemy navy as well as the city they planned to conduct their landing operation. The city with a population of over 10,000 suffered continuous cannon fire for half a day and turned into a burning hell.

Erich and them are happy the enemy retreated and have successfully completed their landing operation, but it seems they will not be able to sortie again so soon because they’re having a hard time gathering the necessary supplies after the city turned into shambles.

「It seems the Second corps will still need a considerable amount of time to land after losing many ships by trying to forcefully land in the rain.」

I don’t know who’s commanding that corps, but what is he doing?

「Alright, then everyone gather their own respective units! Those who are free come with me to bed.」

「「「Right away sir!」」」

After that, Celia moved extremely fast to finish organizing her unit and rushed into the tent, but Pipi was getting pounded by my dick at the time, causing Celia to let out a frustrated groan.

Several Days Later, Nord Plains

The rain which troubled us as soon as the war started disappeared without a trace. Winter is approaching as well and both armies face-off against each other under the clear, almost transparent sky. With nothing obstructing our view in the plains, both parties are able to unmistakably make eye contact with each other.

「As I thought, they have a some reinforcements. The enemy troops add up to around 35,000, matching our own numbers.」

「No, we have over 40,000 though.」

I guess he didn’t include the vassal lords’ armies in his calculations.

The enemy has an army with infantry as their core and cavalry on the left and right to bolster their formation. For us, the kingdom’s army is split up on the left and right with my private army deployed in the center.

They must believe there’s no reason to hide after showing it once.

The enemy heavy infantry are already propping up their large shields and creating a number of box formations. I had a hard time dealing with that formation when I saw it for the first time.

「Again with those boxes, can we do something about them?」

「Yes. The same strategy won’t delay us a second time.」

Leopolt gives out detailed orders to the army with a composed expression on his face. I’ll leave the military tactics to him.

I hold my spear up to the sun and look carefully.

I’ve done some outrageous things with this spear yet there isn’t a single chip or scratch. What on earth is it made from?

「Lord Hardlett, the enemy moved.」

It’s just like the time we fought against these things before – the strategy where they march forward in their iron box formations.

The box is made up of about 1000 people, just like it was in the past, and there are 20 of them surrounded by 10,000 infantry and 5000 cavalry deployed in regular formations.

「Block our approach and cut our formation, then spread out when they get into our ranks……is probably what they plan to do.」

「We should make our move too.」

「Prepare that thing. Is it alright to let the entire private army except the bow cavalry move freely?」

In terms of military strength, it shouldn’t be a problem which needs the kingdom’s army to send out their main force.

「Bow cavalry advance forward. Arrows won’t penetrate those boxes, aim for the infantry around them. Don’t get too close.」

「You heard the chief’s orders. Fight to the death!」

Luna raises her sword above her head and the cavalry charges.

Well, the bow cavalry are valuable so it would be troublesome if too many of them die.

The phalanx-like formation stops in their tracks when they see the 4000 bow cavalry charging at them, then plants their shields into the ground and sticks out their spears. Their anti-cavalry measures can be considered an iron wall. Obviously, swords and arrows won’t get through those thick shields. But the cavalry are a terrifying threat to the infantry who are unable to run behind those shields.

「Align your long spears! Don’t separate from the side of the formation!」

They are using the usual methods to deal with cavalry and are probably expecting supporting arrow fire from the box. But that’s naïve thinking – it won’t become a fight at close quarters.

The bow cavalry charge towards the enemy in a long, vertical formation and ready their bows instead of their swords.

「Deploy to the left!!」

The commander at the head of the formation yells out and promptly changes their course. Naturally, the units following behind move accordingly and fire their arrows at the enemy.

Ever since I included them in the army, this was the tactic they practiced the most.

The enemy’s anti-cavalry formation with long spears was too big for the cavalry to collapse.

「So this is Goldonia’s bow cavalry unit!」

「Calm down! Don’t break formation!」

After showing them the strategy, they did have some sort of response to deal with it, as the spear unit quickly hold up small shields to block the arrows.

But the shooting distance is too close for the bow cavalry and it’s an easy task for them to aim at the soldiers without shields or aim at the gaps in coverage, thus increasing the enemy’s casualties even more.

「The enemy is crumbling!」

「We should move the kingdom army’s cavalry too.」

Celia exclaims happily while Leopolt remains expressionless as usual.

「You’re right, go. Don’t touch the box though.」

The kingdom army’s cavalry rush out in a flash after the bow cavalry pass by like a gust of wind.

In order to get close to attack with their spears and swords, they suffer some casualties from the intercepting spears and arrows, but the crumbling formation could not completely fend off their entire attack. The weight and size of the cavalry are quite the threat to the infantry as they get pushed into one end.

「There’s no problem with training or command either. Lord Radhalde has trained them well. That is …… did they taken out in the front?」

「Tch, idiots.」

One squad of the kingdom’s cavalry use the momentum gained from tearing apart the enemy infantry to attack the box-shaped formation. They cut down the spears growing out from the box and thrust their own spears in the gaps to defeat a few soldiers. That much is good.

「I told them not to go……」

The holes are quickly filled with fresh soldiers from the inside of the box and spears jut out from behind the shields, defeating a couple cavalry in return. In addition, arrows and bowgun bolts rain down from above the heads of the cavalry who lost their point of attack, retreating while carrying their losses.

Moreover, the enemy cavalry rush at them from the flank as if waiting for this moment. If this continues, those impertinent guys will be surrounded.

「……Have the entire kingdom army advance forward. We can’t abandon them.」

With a single order, the kingdom army with close to 30,000 soldiers start moving. Seeing that, the enemy gives up on surrounding the detachment in front of them and charges at us instead.

「I didn’t want to collide with them from the front.」

「It can’t be helped. Circumstances change all the time……we can use the cannons if we stay back.」

We can still use the cannons if the enemy comes at us, but it would be impossible to move the cannons away from us. It takes time and effort to move those things. The cannons particularly created independently have lower performance ability, break easily and the barrel is thick and heavy. They aren’t objects which can be willingly carried here and there depending on the situation.

「Are you fatally insane?」

「No, there’s no problem, but we need to isolate the phalanx formations first. Let’s have Lord Hardlett go in place of the cannons.」

「Alright, let’s sortie……I have something to tell you later, Leopolt.」

「I’m all ears.」

Both armies march slowly towards each other and there is only a short distance until we reach the range we can loose arrows. The Goldonian army is slightly perplexed after seeing Magrado’s strange formation for the first time. I stand at the front brandishing my spear.

「No need to worry, I have defeated that formation before, there is nothing to fear! It’s the same as easily penetrating a woman after taking her virginity!」

The place falls silent.

Crap, I screwed up.

「Beat them down! Chargeeeee–!!」

「O, oooooh—!!?」

I try to deceive them by force and continue shouting. That was close.

The enemy also dashes when they see us pick up the pace.

Celia is sticks by my side, worried I would get injured like last time and swears she will absolutely not separate from me.

Schwartz neighs and wiggles his body to the left. There are several bags hanging down his left side.

「What are you going to do with those things?」

「I thought I would be the replacement for the cannons.」

Since the cannons couldn’t be moved, I took several iron balls with me. Apparently, they’re quite heavy since Schwartz is giving me this unhappy look telling me to hurry up and throw those things.

「Even if you don’t tell me……there!」

I hurl the iron ball at the closest box.

There is still a fair distance between us so the ball flies in an arc and lands in the middle of the formation. I hear a metallic sound but the details are unknown.

「Here comes the rest of them!」

I’ve got the hang of it now so I can drop the balls in good places starting from the next round. The first shot accurately crashed into the front of the formation and knocked back two people along with their shields inciting cheers from our allies.

「It isn’t as powerful as I expected. A spear might be more effective.」

「It’s unfathomable for a human to even hurl such a heavy iron ball though.」

「It makes for good exercise after an injury……owah!」

Right when I was about to throw my last shot, an enemy cavalry suddenly thrust their spear at me. I instinctively bashed him with that thing in my hand using the weight of my entire body behind it.

「Gyu-!!」

Finished him……or it might be more accurate to say he exploded. A bunch of stuff leaks out from the soldier who approached me with his spear and got hit by the iron ball.

「It was my last shot too.」

「Hiiiih!」「Brice exploded!」「Demoooooon!」

The remaining enemy cavalry runs away.

This is effective in its own way I guess.

「Well, that side show is over. Push forward!」

Allies and enemies alike clash with each other.

The shouting of soldiers, the metal clashing sounds and cries of death drown out my voice – this is the battlefield.

Our allies have been one-sidedly pushing them back from the start of the fight. The enemy cavalry tries to threaten from the side but our bow cavalry and the kingdom army’s cavalry block them, chasing them away instead, while the kingdom’s army overwhelms the enemy from the front, and even the vassal lords’ armies are dominant as they circle around and attack from the side.

But that dominance was before genuinely clashing with the phalanx formations. The first one to challenge them was a noble’s army affiliated with the vassal lords.

「W-what is this!? Loose your arrows! Thrust your spears!」

「Neither of them have any effect! We can’t stop the enemy! They’re tearing through our formation!」

The heavy infantry are quite slow with the weight of their equipment and shields. But that slow and steady pace divides the army with certainty. Then, when they reach the middle of the area, another order is yelled out.

「Spread out!」

Their shields are thrown down and soldiers disperse in all directions from the inside of the box. They face little to no resistance as they attack from inside the army’s formation. That noble’s army is instantly destroyed and the entirety of the lords’ armies get shaken just from watching everything unfold.

To make matters worse, some units of the kingdom army’s main force in the front are being split up and crushed in the same manner. The state of battle quickly shifts from an overwhelming Goldonian advantage to more of an equilibrium.

There isn’t any movement from the headquarters where Leopolt is. I guess it isn’t the right time yet.

Then I’ll go wild for a bit.

「Spread out–!!」

The box opens up after stepping deep into an allied army’s formation.

I was waiting for that.

Timing it to be exactly as they opened up, I jump in the middle of the enemy army with Schwartz.

「If you’re opening up, then my spear can also pass through!」

I stab the enemies in my way and Schwartz hooves send them flying as I advance towards the center of their formation. Schwartz would injure the heavy infantry if he carelessly stepped on them so he made an effort to step on the softer parts.

「Uwaah! He’s here, he’s here again!」

「Why does he only appear in front of us!」

It seems these guys participated in the attack on Port Randel. They start bad mouthing me as soon as they see my face.

「So noisy! Where I go is for me to decide!」

Talking about people like Casie. 1

I swing my spear and send them flying. I hear screams in the direction I sent them so they shouldn’t be dead. Thank god.

There seem to be an endless supply of enemies as I’m in the middle of a crowded formation. Just swinging my spear a little will cause chaos. I’m a bit short-handed so I prop my spear on my shoulder with one hand and pull my Dual Crater with my other, then swing it a couple times. 10 or 20 easily turn into corpses.

「Kuh! This guy, can I even stop him if I sacrifice my life……nn?」

The eloquently speaking middle-aged man is cut in half. A young soldier rushes in shouting to get revenge, but is flung in the air, stabbed by a spear from one of my allies and faints in agony.

With the huge confusion, the enemy loses their chance to attack and my allies are able to recover from having their formation split up, successfully regrouping again. It appears the army Erich trained isn’t that weak. Now the enemy is isolated in the middle of allied territory.

「Now I just have to find and defeat the commander to put an end to these boxes……」

When I look around, I find a man in nice dress shouting profusely.

「What are you doing!? In this situation, you should get into assault formation again, pull back temporarily……」

Found him.

「Found you, is it you!?」

「Geh! Waaaah! Someone protect me! Hurry and protect me!」

A few enemy soldiers block the path, standing between me and the escaping commander.

「You’re in the way.」

I slice away one of them with my spear, knock another in the air and hit him in midair towards the third soldier. But the sword of the fourth soldier grazes Schwartz’s face and puts him off balance.

「Bastard!」

I pierce through the heart of the fourth soldier and toss him aside, but now the commander has ran rather far away. It can’t be avoided, and it might take some time but I’ll for sure…….

「Gugya-」

An arrow flies straight through the running commander’s neck. Turning back to see who it came from, I see Pipi releasing them while riding on Christoph’s shoulders. With all the people in a melee like this, the tiny Pipi doesn’t have a clear shot after all. It’s the first time Christoph ever contributed to the battle.

「Gu……h-heavy……get her off quickly.」

Really, which part of Pipi is heavy when I can lift her easily with one hand? If you can’t even do that, then you won’t be able to lift a woman up and fuck her.

It was then a green flaming arrow was shot into the air from the headquarters. It looks like they’re ready.

「Maintain your formations while moving backwards slowly.」

All armies currently locked in a struggle for supremacy abandon their battles and my allies start falling back gradually. The enemy judges we couldn’t endure their pressure and once again get into their phalanx formation, marching forward slowly.

On the right and left flanks of the enemy are 500 cavalry running parallel to their formation. They’re holding some sort of flaming object in their hands.

「What is that?」

「It looks like a siege weapon.」

Oil is poured into a porcelain pot and flames appear on the surface as well. If they attach a string to it and throw it after twirling it around a few times, the place it hits would burn fiercely.

It isn’t a particularly special siege weapon. It doesn’t have much range so it requires the user to get close thus making them a perfect target to be hit by arrows, it doesn’t have much effect on stone walls, and there are many more weaknesses, so there are not many uses for this weapon despite the flames being powerful.

Perhaps it was determined that it will have enough of an effect on the heavy infantry because on top of being sluggish, a human is still under the armor.

「Nn? The enemy flank……no, their feet? Why don’t they throw it in the middle?」

The cavalry threw the pot of oil at the enemy flank, or in other words, at the outermost soldier, just enough to burn him and not directly at the center.

「Well, this is Leopolt’s doing. Let’s just sit back and watch.」

Those cavalry probably hand-carry only those oil pots and don’t even have spears with them.

They approach numerous times from the flank and attack the phalanx with fire. From the side, it might seem like these attacks are nothing but harassment, but the fire attacks from the side are gradually pushing the boxes are closer to each other.

「I see, it’s not like they can walk through fire no matter how large of a shield they have.」

The soldier located at the edge of the formation is focused on maintaining the ranks and there’s no way he would be willing to walk through the fire. Eventually, the entire box formation slowly shifts towards the center, and the other adjacent boxes are similarly being pushed to change directions too.

「So they’re being gathered towards the center.」

「I see……just a little bit more.」

The Kingdom army is gradually retreating as usual and my private army never moved in the first place. It wasn’t because of being slack, but they aren’t equipped to conduct normal battle.

The cavalry repeat their attacks several more times and wait until the enemy box formations are almost touching each other before firing arrows at them. Those arrows aren’t just regular arrows, but flaming arrows used in a siege battle.

「Uwaah!」「Hot!」

The flaming arrows won’t penetrate the iron shields, but they can still disrupt the footwork of the soldiers when they get deflected and fall at their feet. Even the tiniest bit of flame which burns their body would cause them to pull back their feet on reflex. But this isn’t the end of it.

Ballistae are used next……firing large flaming arrows that send shields flying and set soldiers on fire. In addition, the soldiers of the private army get into a defensive formation and throw ignited pots of oil and flaming pipes at them. Innumerable fires wrap around the front of the enemy.

「Fire ahead! Stomp it out!」

「They’re coming from all over, move the shields. We can’t see what’s in front of us! 」

The enemy is sluggish and has poor visibility. They shouldn’t be able to deal with flames coming at them from all directions.

「What incredible flames……but wouldn’t it have been better to do this from the beginning?」

「No, the enemy needed to be tightly packed together, and more importantly, the infantry and cavalry deployed around them can’t be there. The soldiers ordered to start the fire are not equipped to fight enemies who can move around freely.」

Due to the earlier fierce battle, the infantry and cavalry without the protection of the box have already been scattered and were not able to fulfill their role. That’s how we are able to do as we please now. Nevertheless, not just the front, but the flames which converged them from the left and right are burning strong too. He did well to gather the enemy in the place he aimed for.

「Move! Move it! We’ll be burned to death!」

「Don’t mess up the ranks! We’ll be hit by arrows.」「Don’t be ridiculous! You’re telling us to stay in this fire!」

「Let us fall back! We’ll be wiped out at this rate!!」

They won’t just maintain their formation while remaining in the blazing fire, so most of the enemy abandon their shields and somehow find spots where there is no fire. However, the flaming arrows raining down on them prove their effectiveness by dropping and burning soldiers who broke formation.

The bow cavalry were prepared for hell and as soon as they released their flaming arrows, they added to the already cruel scene. There’s no longer any chance for me to do hand-to-hand combat with them so I return to the headquarters and stand beside Leopolt.

「That was incredible.」

「It was for this reason that a large amount of siege weapons were transported. The box formation the enemy heavy infantry makes is practically a castle on the battlefield, thus we just need to have the suitable equipment and we should be able to defeat them.」

The enemies at the front of the formation have already broken formation and are trying to escape, but the soldiers packed together in the back are preventing them from doing so. The units in the back are unable to grasp the situation on the field and are still continuing to march forward.

「It’s time now.」

「So I’ll be giving them the death sentence?」

「That is the commander’s duty and also privilege.」

Good grief. 2

We are pushed back by the enemy and have retreated to the point where we initially planned to ambush the enemy. In that case, we should be able to use them.

「All cannons……fire!」

The cannons roar loud enough to drown out the enemy’s screams, and although 10 cannons might seem like a small amount after witnessing the concentrated cannon fire from the Federation’s fleet, it should have enough power at close range.

Even the soldiers barely maintaining their formation are sent flying by the iron ball shot at them from the front and get defeated without any resistance.

At long last, the enemy is beginning to get routed and they all rush to escape after throwing down their swords and shields. The rear unit with relatively fewer casualties still pushes on in the face of all that’s happened.

「All units……charge!! Thoroughly annihilate them!」

The Kingdom army, the private army, the cavalry and archers all mix together to pursue the enemy. The vassal lords’ armies who ran away also gathered themselves and give chase as well. Well-organized actions don’t need to be taken any longer. We just need to hunt down the enemies and finish them off. There’s a very slim chance the enemy’s slow heavy infantry will outrun us.

With today’s battle and following pursuit, it appears the Magrado army lost close to 30,000 out of their 35,000 forces. A majority of the soldiers became burnt corpses so I can’t be sure of the exact number but it’s very clear they have suffered catastrophic losses. This much should be enough to make them lose the will to fight, especially since their elite heavy infantry were completely destroyed.

「Is the end of the war close?」

「Nmoh ……nmohmoh!」

I mutter while lightly patting the heads of the five women fighting to get my dick in their mouths.

By the way, Christoph got hit by the shield a soldier threw at him out of desperation during the pursuit of the enemy and was knocked out, so he couldn’t finish off a single enemy this time either.

Aegir Hardlett. 22 years old. Autumn. Wartime.

Commander of Third Army Corps

Subordinate Squad: 39,900

Private Army: 7900 (Units brought to battle only)

Infantry: 2500, Cavalry: 500, Archers: 700, Engineers: 300, Bow Cavalry: 3900

Cannons: 8 (2 damaged when firing)

Kingdom Army – 2 divisions: 25,500

Neighboring Vassal Lords’ Armies: 6500

Additional – Rafen Defense Squad: 1000

Military Subordinates: Leopolt (Deputy Commander), Celia (adjutant), Myla (commander), Irijina (commander), Luna (commander of the bow cavalry), Pipi, Tristan (house-sitting), Gido (critical condition)

Current Location: Travelling from the Nord Plains to the capital Odoros

Achievements: Capitulated Port Randel, Annihilated the Magrado Army